HIV treatment cheaper than none, business told

Zackie Achmat says that for about a month each year, he and his body work at between 20 and 40% of full capacity.

"The amount of money I spend on medicines for antibiotics and tuberculosis is more than the cost of anti-retrovirals," he said yesterday.

He was holding a panel discussion at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg about the costs and benefits of business programmes to address and treat HIV/AIDS.

Achmat, head of the Treatment Action Campaign, used himself as an example to illustrate the plight businesses in South Africa would face when HIV, if not treated, slowly eroded the workforce - about a third of the next generation - if businesses did not start implementing programmes for anti-retrovirals, among other services.

Dr Brian Brink, Anglo American's medical senior vice-president, said: "Today I have no doubt that the cost of treatment will be cheaper than no treatment."

This year, Anglo American began treating employees with anti-retrovirals, which has met with mixed success. Brink estimated that a quarter of Anglo American's employees, or about 125 000 workers, were living with HIV. But so far, he said, only 200 were using anti-retrovirals.

Part of the problem, Brink and Achmat explained, came from the long-standing stigma, discrimination and denial of some managers.

This stifled employee participation - for fear of being deserted by their employer - in voluntary counselling and testing, which Brink said would help a company to identify the people with HIV and work closely with them to extend their lives.

"We need a free and open climate, a climate of trust," he added.